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Spam Replacing Postal Junk Mail?
TheOtherChimeraTwin writes "I've been getting spam from mainstream companies that I do business with, which is odd because I didn't give those companies my email address. It is doubly strange because the address they are using is a special-purpose one that I wouldn't give out to any business. Apparently knotice.com ('Direct Digital Marketing Solutions') and postalconnect.net aka emsnetwork.net (an Equifax Marketing Service Product with the ironic name 'Permission!') are somehow collecting email addresses and connecting them with postal addresses, allowing companies to send email instead of postal mail. Has anyone else encountered this slimy practice or know how they are harvesting email addresses?"
The only way you get spam is if a) you give your email address to businesses or b) if you use a service like hotmail where spammers send emails to random addresses and record the ones that don't get returned.
Businesses and spammers can't magically conjure your email address out of thin air so the cause must be one of the above. You've either signed up for a service and not unchcked "allow us to share your details with select partners" or you're using a popular email service that spammers target. Given that you're getting emails from major companies it sounds more likely it's the first possibility.
I registered a domain and use that for my email address and I'm careful to read what I'm signing up for so I get absolutely no spam at all. My opinion of spam is the same as my opinion of viruses - if you ever get any it's your own fault.